Out of Breath

"If you always do what you have always done you will always get what you have always had." 

This week has been an interesting week to say the least. It has not been a week riding the gravy train. Honestly, it has had a lot of struggles.
However, even in all the struggles there has been healing hearts and bridges being mended.
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This evening I was with our youth group and a question was presented in our lesson.

"Have you ever felt like there was a time in your life when you did not hear from God? Why did you think that prayer would never be answered? How did you respond to that situation?"

The girls went around the circle each taking a couple minutes to share how the question related to them.
I particularly liked one of the girls answer, it went something like this:
I found that when I prayed sometimes I was not hearing the answer, I was listening for a answer and then I realized I was part of the answer. The answer wasn't waiting for God to do a miraculous movement..it was me doing some of the work....."
My Response:
I love Quotes.

"Rather than asking God for a change in Circumstance, ask God for a change in Character."

Seeking a change in character, seeking change, sometimes requires work. Be it physical work, emotional work or spiritual work. You can't seek change without a little blood, sweat and tears. Without making some sacrifices, taking a leap of faith, swallowing some pride, conquering your fears; change, positive change may not come any faster than a snail crawl IF AT ALL.


Whether it is in my daily life or in my running. The ultimate goal is to be better. To set and reach goals. To move forward. My season of running faster has began to plateau. This does not mean that I throw in the towel. It means that I reevaluate my goals, but I continue to set them.

This week my running is still in the Recovery Phase. I want to continue to take it easy, laugh on the run, chit chat with my friend's and just put in the miles.
BUT that isn't going to make me any better.
Thursday we had a group run. 8 people showed up to run 2 loops at Holly Rec. The first loop was planned to run easy, the second loop...I wanted to pick it up a bit.
About mile 7, I was running with Rachel. We both were trying to keep up. We picked up our pace and encouraged one another. We both wanted to push ourselves. We both needed to. Together we carried each other to the end of the trail, out of breath and accomplished in our sweat.

TODAY. Lacey and I took a chance in the misty rain to run outside. Thunder and lightning had danced around all afternoon.
We planned to run 7 miles. We didn't discuss our route or our pace. But Lacey and I are one of the same brain. We took off down E.Holly Rd both running with intention. At mile 2, we had nonverbally decided we were going to run pushing ourselves.
The run was quiet other then some dissembled conversation that mostly ended with "I can't talk right now." or "If you haven't noticed I am not answering because I am OUT of BREATH!"

We BOTH knew we need to start pushing ourselves. We need to start putting in some work. As the miles accumulated, so did our plan. The deeper we got into our mileage the harder it was to maintain our goal. My lungs had not worked this hard in weeks. My beating heart pounded in confusion. My feet hit the hard pavement striking it with enough forced to feel in my shins. We were not playing nice. We were not having social run time, there was no laughing or lolly gagging.
Our goal was to get this 7 mile run under a 9min/m. NO MATTER what.  My legs have been pampered by a slower pace the last few months. Every fiber in me was screaming.

Lacey and I took turns leading and carrying one another. As soon as the 7 mile beep hit our watches, breathlessly we hit STOP on our watches.
We both peered at our digits to see what our results were.

RUNDOWN
Distance; 7.02
Pace: 8:37min/mi
Time: 1h.33sec

We took a few seconds to catch our breaths. We DID it. Even though we were a little beat up, it did not measure nearly to the feeling of accomplishment we had. All smiles we agreed it was a great run.

Breathless:
Breathless is where the hard work is.
Maybe Forgiving someone leaves you breathless.
Maybe Loving someone leaves you breathless.
Maybe its studying for that exam or getting your butt to the gym that leaves you Breathless.

But whatever it is, its the Work you put in that produces results.

Anita~